Strange but true facts about meteorites

A strange piece of news came up on October 4, 2021. The night before, Ruth Hamilton of the town of Golden in the USA woke up form sleep on hearing a massive explosion. There was a huge hole in her roof, and a black boulder a little over a kilogram lay on her bed. She was lucky to have missed being hit, since the rock was not even from our planet! It was a meteorite, and is being studied by scientists to see where it came from.  

What is a meteorite?  
A meteorite is seen as a bright streak of light in the sky, so it is often referred to as a shooting star or falling star. It is actually a lump of material from other heavenly bodies in the solar system falling to Earth. On a clear night, we can see a few meteorites per hour, and during a meteor shower there might be as many as 100 per hour. Most of these stones are relatively small and get vaporized as they hurtle at extremely high speed through the atmosphere. Larger pieces make it through and reach the ground. Most meteorites come from asteroids, and a few have been traced back to asteroid 4 Vesta. Some may come from comets, the moon and from Mars.   

What are the different types of meteorites? 
Meteorites are classified according to chemical makeup, types of chemical elements, and mineral composition. They are usually of 3 broad groups: stony, metallic (contains iron as a compound), and mixture (combination of materials). Meteorites are further sub-divided within the groups. For example, pallasite meteorites are stony-iron meteorites with nickel and iron, and also contain olivine crystals, which are found on Earth too.   

Why do scientists study meteorite?  
Some meteorites have been travelling for thousands of years to reach us. That makes them a sort of space fossil. Since meteorites are ancient pieces of celestial bodies, scientists study them for information about the history of our solar system. The study of meteorites has helped us understand how planets and asteroids formed and how impacts of large meteorites altered Earth’s history and life on our planet.